Philip Greenslade explores the gospel and person of John

From the early days of the church, John's gospel acquired the symbol of the eagle.

The great scholar Jerome (349–420AD) identified each of the four gospels with one of the four creatures seen in Ezekiel's vision (Ezekiel 1 and 10). He chose the eagle for John.

As an eagle sweeps through the skies in majestic flight, so John's gospel, again and again, soars up to heaven and swoops back to earth, telling the story of Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus uniquely, as John presents him, embodies Israel's human vocation and incarnates Israel's God, the One Creator God of the world.

The author?

Broadly speaking there are three approaches to the question of who wrote John's Gospel, and all three interact with the identity of the character described as the 'Beloved Disciple', (13:23 – where he is in the Upper Room which would suggest that he is one of the Twelve; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7;cf 20:24).

(i) The first view denies that John, the Apostle, the Son of Zebedee, is to be identified with the Beloved Disciple.

It is strange that so much of the Galilean ministry of Jesus is omitted by the author (though one answer recently offered is that John did so deliberately, knowing that his readers already had Mark's Gospel – Richard Bauckham).

This view suggests that the Beloved Disciple, himself a Jewish disciple of Jesus, wrote the gospel, building on his own eyewitness recollections.

(ii) The second view is that a follower of the Apostle John, a member of a supposed 'Johannine Circle or School or Community' used the reminiscences of the apostle John.

This leaves open the identity of the Beloved Disciple whom some have suggested may even have been Lazarus (cf 11:3,11,36 with 21:23).

(iii) The traditional view – defended in recent times by Don Carson among others – is that John the Evangelist is the Apostle John, the Son of Zebedee, who is himself the Beloved Disciple.

It is worth noting that Johannine scholarship which during the first half of the 20th century was fixated on the idea that John was a Greek, very late and therefore very unhistorical gospel, now largely considers it to be Jewish, much earlier – perhaps even an independent source to the Synoptics – and therefore based on reliable historical knowledge.

Gary Burge sums up the debate by saying:

The hypothesis that John the Son of Zebedee is the beloved disciple – and the Gospel's eyewitness – fits well.

[But], even though the apostle John was no doubt the fountainhead of the Gospel's traditions, its text was subsequently edited and reforged by disciples within the Johannine church.

So when? Carson, Morris and Moo – in the standard evangelical introduction to the New Testament writings, tentatively suggest a date in the region of 80–85 AD.

This allows room for the Epistles of John to be dated somewhat later and to view them as perhaps correcting Gnostic misunderstandings and misuse of John's Gospel (Burge).

The uniqueness of John's Gospel

Even a cursory reading of the four Gospels makes you realise how different John's is.

John has no parables, no Sermon on the Mount, no Transfiguration, no Last Supper nor Gethsamane.

Instead, he has Jesus delivering lengthy discourses and, unlike the Synoptics, going out of his way, it seems, to draw attention to himself!

However, these differences can be overdrawn; there is nothing in John that cannot be, in some form or other, shown to be there, at least in seed form, in the other three Gospels.

Like them, John is speaking about the same historical Jesus and – apart from his placement of the Temple incident – following essentially the same outline of the story.

In fact it is to John's mention of three Passover feasts that we owe our view of Jesus' ministry as lasting three years and not one year.

How then might we characterise John's Gospel?

The Gospel of Word and Wisdom

The overture (or prologue – John 1:1–18) contains all the seeds of subsequent development in the Gospel.

John clothes his 'logos' ('word') in the categories used to describe God's 'wisdom' both in the Old Testament and in contemproary Jewish writings (Proverbs 8; Wisdom 7–10; Ecclesiasticus 24).

The 'wisdom' terminology was very influential for John (and other NT writers).

It enabled him to take the unprecedented step of joining the life and activity of a human being – Jesus of Nazareth – with the life and activity of the One Creator God within the acceptable framework of Jewish monotheism (cf Colossians 1:15–20; Hebrews 1:1–4 etc).

John might well have said: In the beginning was wisdom (Gr sophia) but for his own good reasons he chose 'word' (Gr logos).

By doing so he lost none of the useful resonance the term had in the Greek philosophical world but maintained the crucial connection with the Old Testament.

There God's 'word' effects creation (Gen 1:1; Ps 33:6ff) and brings revelation through the prophets.

'Word' has the added significance of referring also to the preaching of the gospel message, the 'word' of Christ (Acts 4:4, 29; 8:25; 12:24: Romans 10:8–17; 1 Thessalonians 1:5–6; Colossians 1:5; etc).

The Gospel of Glory

John wants to portray the whole of Jesus' life and ministry as demonstrating the glory of God (1:14).

This is perhaps why, surprisingly, he omits to mention the Transfiguration as reported in the Synoptics.

For John, Jesus is not so much transfigured on one occasion but all the way through his ministry.

Strikingly, John highlights the Cross as the highpoint of his exaltation (3:14; 8:28; 12:32).

The Gospel of Fulfilment

Jesus fulfils and replaces the significance and purpose of all of Israel's feasts and institutions, and so brings the whole Scriptural narrative of the Old Testament to its intended goal and climax.

It is in this comprehensive and conclusive way that the Scriptures 'testify' to Jesus (5:39).

This involves a radical break with Judaism and the inauguration of a whole new order of things – making John's gospel the Gospel of the New Age:

• New Covenant (1:16–51)
• New Wine for a
• New Age (2:1–11)
• New Temple (2:12f)
• New Birth (3:1f)
• New Water
• New Worship (4)
• New Sabbath (5)
• New Exodus and Bread from heaven (6)
• New Tabernacles
• New light and water (7–8)
• New Shepherd (9–10)
• New Creation (11)
• New Way to Glory (11:50– 12:50)
• New Commandment (13)
• New life in the Spirit
• New Covenant community (14–16)
• New High Priest (17)
• New Enthronement as King on the Cross (18–19)
• New Creation initiated in Resurrection (20–21).

The Gospel of Crisis

John presents the death of Jesus as bringing the world to a point of crisis – judgement for it and for its 'ruler' (12:31).

Jesus has been portrayed as 'on trial', drawing on the law court imagery of Isaiah 40–55.

In Isaiah, Yahweh is both the judge and a party in the dispute. He calls on the pagan gods to prove themselves, and on his people, Israel, to 'bear witness' to him (cf Isaiah 41:1–5; 21–29; 43:8–13; 44:6–8; 45:20–25).

In John's account, Jesus is a party to the dispute but is also seen to be the judge, thus standing in the place of Yahweh.

Tragically and ironically it is God's own people, Israel, who now testify against him (see especially 5:16–47).

Jesus is the true 'witness' who is the final revelation of the one true God (3:11ff).

To have seen him is to have seen the Father (14:10).

The Gospel of the Resurrection

"After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they 'believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken" (2:21–22).

John is 'writing his gospel from a vantage point he did not himself enjoy during Jesus's earthly ministry' (William Lane).

Only in the light of the resurrection could Jesus be properly understood.

The Gospel of The Holy Spirit

It is with the 'hindsight of the Holy Spirit' that Jesus is seen in his full glory (John 7:37–39).

It is the Spirit who glorifies Jesus and leads the disciples into the deeper and developing truth about Jesus (John 16:12–15).

John's gospel is an example of this very promise.

For this reason John's gospel was, and continues to be, 'an empowering gospel that shaped this Christian community so that it would expect dynamic spiritual experiences.

Jesus and the Father were dwelling within these spiritually reborn believers (14:23). No other Gospel speaks like this' (Gary Burge).

The Gospel of Life and Faith

John speaks sparingly of the kingdom of God, choosing to emphasise the present experience of the kingdom of God in terms of having and enjoying eternal life now (3:16, 36; 5:21).

The way to enjoy this life is to believe (1:12–13) and go on believing that Jesus is the Messiah.

Faith for John is both having certain convictions about Jesus as the Messiah – and in making a radical commitment to Jesus and enjoying an intimate relationship with him!

'Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name' (20:30–31).

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For Further Reading

Don Carson, The Gospel According to John (IVP 1991). Among the many commentaries on John's Gospel, this is the single most valuable volume for the general reader. Theologically rich and exegetically astute, this is a vibrant and faith-nourishing study.

Ben Witherington, John's Wisdom (Lutterworth 1995). This too is accessible to the general reader, and looks at the Gospel consistently through the lens of OT/Jewish Wisdom theology.

Studies on John by John Pryor.

John the Evangelist of the Covenant People (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1992). This is the work that has helped me most and is quite outstanding, especially in drawing out the fulfilment of the Old Testament in John's presentation of Jesus.

Kevin Quast, Reading the Gospel of John (Paulist Press, 1991) – one of a series of clear and simple guides to the biblical books, written with unobtrusive but excellent scholarship, and with helpful graphs and charts.

Gary Burge, The Anointed Community – the Holy Spirit in John (Eerdmans, 1987) – exhaustive and inspiring.